Talk or Torture
by pull harder
Summary: Rikkai Babbles #6. Marui won't leave Kirihara alone UNTIL.


Standard Disclaimer applies

_**Standard Disclaimer applies.**_

RBS: **Raburabu Time**

Babbles List:

**For the Dearly Departed**

**Raburabu Time**

**Burger Day**

**Tutoring the Brat**

**From Hell, With Love**

Um… yes! It's recommended that you read the Babble before this (aka From Hell, With Love) 'cos it contains information that I didn't bother to elaborate on here. My eyes hurt. I've been staying up late for the past few nights watching Yakitate! Japan and Cooking Master Boy. I'm fairly satisfied with my course of action. /falls asleep/

* * *

Akaya sighed, pushing his face further into the pillow. He believed, truly and honestly—and naively believed, that if he buried himself into his mattress, Marui-senpai would quit being an ass of a "concerned" ex-boyfriend and maybe even _leave him alone_. "Stop poking me!" he snapped crossly, lifting his face a little to enhance the evil in his expression.

Marui was unfazed. "Not until."

"Not until _what_?" Akaya asked, baffled. "You've been saying that since you ambushed me and I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Yes you do," the redhead said boredly. To be honest, his hands were getting tired with all the poking he'd been doing, but he must make Akaya _surrender_. Not for any particular reason, really, and definitely not because he was a concerned ex-boyfriend, no matter what he'd led Akaya to believe. He was attacking 'cos of boredom, the ultimate weakness of even as great a mind as his, or as stupid and annoying as Niou's.

"…Mercy…" whimpered Akaya, swiping weakly at the malicious hands. Much to his surprise, his senpai obeyed. He looked up at the older boy who was now sitting on his bedside table.

Marui wore a small frown as he looked at the junior. "Gee, Aka-chan, you know that Niou likes you, right?"

"Ye… uh, no? Niou as in Niou-senpai who locked me in my closet for five hours on the second week of my becoming a Regular as my so-called initiation?"

"He kissed you, though."

"He kisses a lot of people," Akaya countered, not sure if he liked where the conversation was going. "And he was sick at the time so I put it down as an effect of his delusional mind."

"Even when he was perfectly sober while writing the letter?" Marui asked.

"You don't know that for sure," Akaya said smugly.

The self-proclaimed tensai sighed, holding back his frustration a bit. "So what do you make of your meeting later, then?"

"Dunno."

"_Aka-chan_," Marui pressed. The junior could be very stubborn at the worst of times, one of which being two hours before his fated talk with the Trickster. "Fine. Wanna know what would've happened if we hadn't broken up?"

"No," Akaya answered curiously.

"I would've beaten Niou up, of course."

Snort. "And ended up in the hospital yourself, I bet."

"_Disregarding_ your lack of respect for your senpai and ex-boyfriend," Marui began with a heated glare, "I'm sure Niou would be terribly jealous when he finds out you were in a room. With me. Just the two of us. In a house, empty—save the two of us. Supposedly _talking_."

"We _are_ talking," Akaya pointed out.

"He doesn't know that for sure," Marui mimicked Akaya's earlier statement. "Seeing as he's not here to even witness things happening."

The junior glowered, turning over to lie on his back. "I demand that you take back the mockery and the logical follow-up."

"Hurt your brain?"

"Shut up, please," was the exasperated reply.

Silence reigned in the room as the two boys started down almost the same line of thought. Every few seconds, Marui popped a bubble and Akaya shifted on the bed. A bird flitted close to the bedroom window, but quickly whizzed away when Akaya banged the glass with his fist.

"You could totally pass as a nature-hater," said the redhead after his bubble popped. He scratched his head and shuffled over to sit down next to the junior.

"Ow! You're heavy!" Akaya whined. "Don't sit on my legs. I'll get _cancer_."

"…Cancer," Marui deadpanned. "Elaborate."

"Niou-senpai said your butt is radio-active and that any physical contact with another human being would instantly give that human cancer," he explained.

"And fukubuchou says _I'm _the one poisoning your brain," Marui muttered darkly. "I'm gonna call Yukimura and have him explain to you the Niou-related facts of life." He took out his phone and rang up the captain's name from the directory.

Akaya watched, his dislike for the path of the conversation increasing dramatically.

"Yo, Yukimura! …Ah, he's here. I need you to talk to him 'cos I'm really very close to bashing Niou's head in… I can stop myself, but if Aka-chan provokes me any further—" Marui paused with a glance at the Rikkai ace. "Um… 'kay. I'll give it to him… Aka-chan, Yukimura wants to talk to you," he said, pressing the loudspeaker button before handing over the phone.

Akaya accepted it without complaints. "Seii-buchou."

"_Akaya, how're you doing?_"

"'m fine, but Marui-senpai's being annoying." Akaya heard Yukimura chuckle at the other end, along with some scratchy noises. He suspected that Yanagi was with the captain, and maybe Sanada too, and also that he'd been put on loudspeaker himself.

"_That's good, then. I heard you're meeting with Niou later._"

"Hey, Yukimura, tell Aka-chan Niou's not a playboy," Marui butted in before the younger boy could speak.

"_Akaya, Niou isn't a playboy. He's just really experienced when it comes to relationships._"

Akaya pouted at the phone. "That means he's a playboy, right?"

"…_knew… say that… Niou… data…_" came Yanagi's voice, a bit crackly and distant.

Then Sanada's, "_…unheard… should… respect…_"

"_Renji says no,_" Yukimura said in an amused tone. "_Sanada says you should learn to respect your senpai, Akaya._"

More Sanada mumbles.

"…_Correction. Respect them no matter how undependable they may seem. Niou has his good side, too, Sanada would like to add._"

"_I didn't say that._"

Marui snickered.

"_Anyway, Akaya,_" Yukimura began. "_I don't think Niou's feelings are one-sided._"

"So he's two-faced, huh."

The redhead's snickers turned into full-blown laughter.

"…_Er… That's…_"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Akaya blinked at the phone in his hand. "Eh?" Seii-buchou… hung up on him? Is that for real?

Marui stood up, reining in his laughter with the practiced ease of one who'd hung out for far too long and too many times with the Trickster. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," he announced. "Want anything? Soap? Shampoo? Loofa?"

"Just get the hell out, Marui-senpai. What am I gonna do with shampoo in my room anyway?" he answered, annoyed.

Then, finally alone, Akaya had room to think. It was hard when Marui-senpai was around, with the popping and the bright hair. Now… He didn't believe Niou-senpai's a playboy who kisses just about anyone. He knew how serious the Trickster can be. He didn't need Marui's chatter, Yanagi's data, Sanada's bossiness or Yukimura's advice.

Akaya knew how Niou-senpai felt and how he himself felt.

His only problem then could be narrowed down to… how on earth was he supposed to face Niou-senpai later?

* * *

Comments on the story would be nice, since I'm practically asleep while typing this note. I'm gonna work on Burger Day tomorrow 'cos I have no classes YEAH. 8'D


End file.
